Thrashman’s Retro Metal Pick Of The Week: Type O Negative’s “Bloody Kisses” Has Been The Soundtrack To Many A Halloween Night Since 1993

I first heard Type O Negative when MTV aired the Video For "Black No.1" (they used to actually play videos) and thought it was cool but didn't necessarily feel the need to run out and pick up the album.

Fast forward about a year and my bro Chuck picks up a copy of Bloody Kisses and we grab a cold twelve and head to the sticks to ride around and give it a listen. Again, I'm not blown away but not totally turned off by it either.

There's something about albums that don't really grab my attention at first but continue to call out to me to give it another listen...they tend to be some of my favorites. Bloody Kisses is no exception. In fact, after just one more barley and hop filled musical excursion I rolled right on down to the record store and picked up my own copy of what would be the soundtrack of my life for the next several months.

I ain't kiddin'...I listened to that album AT LEAST once a day for months and months always seeming to discover some element that had been lost on me in the previous listens. The combination of Pete Steele's crooning Count Dracula vocals, straight-forward guitar work of Kenny Hickey and atmosphere of Josh Silver's keyboards were just so mesmerizing to me and I remember thinking "Man, this band could be huge". They were the truest of metal bands yet there was a certain air of pop sensibilities that made Type O Negative's music infectious and impossible to get out of your head.

From the moment I "got" what Type O were about until the day the big man left this planet a new release from that band was something I stood in line to buy the day it hit the streets. And for my money, Bloody Kisses is the very reason so many of us did that because Slow, Deep And Hard to get into doesn't come to close to the greatness of the aforementioned album.